Photo coated mugs export begins at SriCity

SRI CITY, a business city on the National Highway 5, flagged the first consignments of RN Photo Coatings. Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commissioner did the honours. The consignment consisted of 75,000 mugs priced at about £ 900,000. Nearly 40 companies operate out of Sri City and 50 more companies will commence operations by March 2013. The total investment in the business city is Rs.800 crore. “We have a very simple approval process and RN Coatings had their first consignment ready for shipment within three months,” said Ravindra Sana Reddy, Managing Director, Sri City.

MTR’s spicy entry

MTR FOODS Pvt. Ltd., a familiar name in Indian vegetarian cuisine for 85 years, has entered the Tamil Nadu masala market with authentic pounded masalas. Sanjay Sarma, CEO, has been endeavouring to change MTRs image from that of a regional company to a national player. Spices, ready mixes and snacks are the three main categories and MTR is not letting go of its existing categories such as ready-to- at food as it continuous to be a market leader in that segment estimated at Rs 20,000 crore. The company has invested over Rs 100 crore to expand their facilities.

IOB plans to tackle bad loans

INDIAN OVERSEAS Bank has planned to recast its lending strategy to tackle bad loans. M Narendra, CMD of IOB, unveiled plans for more thrust on the retail, SME and agricultural segments as it goes slow on corporate loans. He said the government is actively considering Rs1500 crore equity infusion during the current financial year. IOB has been in the process of recruiting over 300 rural development officers and opening 40 specialised agriculture credit branches in various states to handle agri-business.

12 MOUs at one go

TAMIL NADU Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, and the Industry Secretary Vikram Kapur signed 12 Memoranda of Understanding worth Rs.20,925 crore. These MOUs are expected to provide direct employment to 36,855 people. The Chief Minister said now with a dozen companies committing to invest more than $4 billion dollars towards the creation of fresh capacities in Tamil Nadu, the over all business sentiment is getting refreshed.

Sustainable auto industry

UL DQS India, a product certification body, Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation along with the Indo German Chamber of Commerce have launched the auto sustain programme aiming at creating a sustainable and green, supply chain for the automobile industry. Planned in three phases: the first stage focuses on awareness campaigns, surveys and CEO forums to discuss and get the views of all stakeholders. The second stage trains companies with seminars and expert interaction. In the third phase selected few companies are given technical assistance and a best practices exchange forum is created.

The programme aims to instill the culture of Corporate Sustainability Reporting into the automobile industry. This report calculates the total natural resource consumption of a company and also suggests ways for efficient usage of the same.

Food for Thought

TO MARK its 175th year the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) began organising breakfast sessions titled Food For Thought. The FFT sessions bring on floor opposing views of experts on current and topical issues. Following its resounding success, MCCI has decided to continue with it. FFT programme aim to take up larger issues that involve economy, society, business and the community.

Auto Serve 2012

AUTO SERVE 2012, the fifth edition of India’s focused exhibition on automotive aftermarket business, was organised by the CII (SR). R Dinesh, Chairman, Auto Serve 2012 & JMD of TV Sundram Iyengar & Sons, said that this exhibition provided a ready to use marketing and education platform for the growing automotive aftermarket business in India.

The fragmented Indian automotive aftermarket is expected to grow to around $9.4 billion by 2015 from its present estimated size of $3.7 billion. With the population of automobiles in India exceeding 110 million and growing at the rate of 10‐12 per cent per annum, the automotive aftermarket business in India is poised for immense growth. The 3‐day event saw 100 exhibitors, 23,000 trade and business visitors, 40 sector associations from across India and overseas.

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